Netflix has released first look images for Ratched, the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest prequel series where the titular character will be played by Sarah Paulson. Netflix is advertising the show as being from the creator of American Horror Story, suggesting it'll fit in a similar tonal vein.
Mildred Ratched (Paulson) is an asylum nurse in 1947, who wants to work at a psychiatric hospital where uncommon, alarming practices are performed on the patients. Mildred tries to do her best work, but the closer she gets to the core of the mental health system and those who shape it, the more the darker side of her personality begins to emerge.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest – both Ken Kesey's novel and the 1975 movie starring Jack Nicholson – Nurse Ratched is framed as an extremely unpleasant instrument of a deeply flawed system, so it'll be interesting to see if this series can deliver a credibly sympathetic angle on the character. Netflix teases that 'true monsters are made, not born', which suggests the show will treat her story as a fall from grace.
Here are the first images from the series, which is due to be released on September 18, 2020.
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This is writer and director Ryan Murphy's third Netflix series, following The Politician and the recent Hollywood. As well as American Horror Story, Murphy co-created Glee, created '00s plastic surgery-themed drama Nip/Tuck and produces the anthology show American Crime Story.
Murphy and Paulson have collaborated on multiple great shows in the past, too, including AHS and the first season of American Crime Story.
Ratched will be eight episodes long.
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